A gateway to discovering and tracking the descendants of the original New Netherland Brouwer progenitors, namely Adam Brouwer of Gowanus, Jan (or Johannes) Brouwer of Flatlands and Willem Brouwer of Beverwijck (Albany).

Sunset at Gowanus Bay

Sunset at Gowanus Bay, Henry Gritten, 1851

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Kings County Tombstone Inscriptions and Brooklyn Baptisms

In 1882 and 1888, the Kings County Genealogical Club published transcriptions from graveyards in Bushwick, Flatlands, New Utrecht and Gravesend, Long Island. In 1888 and 1894, Baptism records, as transcribed by Teunis G. Bergen, were also published. At some time during the past fifty years these photocopies of these published volumes were collected by William B. Bogardus. I have scanned the pages to PDFs and they are now available online.

There are very few Brouwers found among the graveyard transcriptions, however, there are numerous other Kings County families represented and certainly they will be of use to anyone researching Kings County families in general.

The Brooklyn baptism records should be used with caution. There are some errors within them. Teunis G. Bergen translated and transcribed these records in (I assume) the 1860s or 1870s. They have since been superseded by the far superior translation and transcription by A. P. G. Jos van der Linde for the Holland Society, and published by the Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc. in 1983. Whenever researching Kings County families, the van der Linde translations should be used. A copy of the book, however, can be difficult to find. It is out of print and used copies for sale can be expensive (see listing at Amazon). Some libraries have copies, but that can be hit or miss. The large Buffalo and Erie County Library does not have a copy. However, I did find a very small rural library in Spencerport, New York, that did have one. So, check your local library. Hopefully someday this terrific collection, published under the collection title, "New York Historical Manuscripts," is digitized and made available online (even for a fee) as e-Books.

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